Congressional Republicans are vowing to oust Rep. LIz Cheney, R-Wyo., from her leadership position by the end of the month, according to sources close to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
“There is no way that Liz will be conference chair by month’s end,” one key McCarthy ally told The Hill on Monday. “When there is a vote, it won’t be a long conference; it will be fast. Everyone knows the outcome.”
House Freedom Caucus members, including Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have pushed for Cheney’s ouster ever since she voted to impeach former president Donald Trump, but their first attempt to remove her from leadership failed.
Even McCarthy defended Cheney at first.
But this development suggests a majority of the House GOP has now turned against Cheney.
“This is a broad range of lawmakers who have had it with her,” said a second McCarthy ally. “She’s a liability, and McCarthy’s as fed up as the rest of us that she is focused on the past rather than winning back the House.”
McCarthy seemed to confirm this last week when he was asked whether Cheney remains a “good fit” for a leadership position.
“That’s a question for the conference,” he said.
McCarthy stepped up pressure on Cheney on Tuesday, claiming on Fox News that there are rank-and-file concerns about “her ability to carry out her job” as she trades insults with Trump.
In another illustration of internal GOP tensions, Cheney and McCarthy have not appeared together at House Republican leadership news conferences for weeks.
The news comes after Cheney insisted that Republicans who questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election shouldn’t be allowed to run for the GOP nomination in 2024.
“I think that we’re going to be in a good position to be able to take the White House,” Cheney told the New York Post. “I do think that some of our candidates who led the charge, particularly the senators who led the unconstitutional charge not to certify the election, you know, in my view that’s disqualifying.”
Just this week, Cheney blasted Trump-supporting Republicans for “poisoning our democratic system.”
“The 2020 presidential election was not stolen,” she tweeted on Monday. “Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”
Associated Press contributed to this article.
